AUSTIN - The Longhorn Network, ESPN's groundbreaking and controversial partnership with the University of Texas, launches today with great hoopla to a nationwide audience of …

Well, actually, not much.

The network kicks off with probably no more than a few thousand households nationwide - and no access, pending last-minute deals, in such core markets as Houston, San Antonio and, potentially, Austin.

Still, ESPN and university officials are relentlessly bullish on their 20-year, $300 million partnership.

"This is a good thing," said Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds. "I love that we're able to do it. I love that the (Big 12) conference has allowed us to do it. Everybody can do something special and do it in their own way. That's America."

ESPN declined to estimate in how many households the Longhorn Network will be available when it signs on at 6 p.m. today from the university's South Mall with a cast that includes the anchors from ESPN's popular College GameDay program.

It did announce Thursday its first major LHN distribution deal with Verizon's FiOS service, which has about 3.9 million subscribers but is limited within Texas to about 250,000 customers in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs. The FiOS agreement begins Sept. 1, two days before the network telecasts Texas' football opener against Rice.

"This is the pain part," said Chris Plonsky, women's athletic director and director of external services for the Texas athletic department. "We're not purposely trying to starve people from coverage. But as I told (a student-athlete), if you want to have a network, you can't give it away."

Media reports this week said an agreement was imminent with Grande Communications, which has about 140,000 customers in smaller systems along the Interstate 35 corridor, including Austin. But that deal had not been announced as of Thursday.

ESPN, which reportedly is seeking a monthly carriage fee of 40 cents per subscriber in Texas, has been unable to strike deals with such major carriers as Comcast, Time Warner, AT&T U-verse, DirecTV and Dish Network. So the Longhorn Network will launch with more potential than actual eyeballs for its first live event, a Texas-Pepperdine women's volleyball match.

LHN's potential for changing the college sports landscape played a role in another development Thursday: Texas A&M announced it is "exploring our options" as it prepares to leave the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference, ending a conference affiliation with Texas dating to 1915.

But as the 70-member Longhorn Network contingent gathered at its new studios north of campus, it focused Thursday on its product, not the fallout.

"These guys (Texas and Texas A&M) are rivals, and it's more between the schools than between us," said Dave Brown, LHN's programming vice president. "We're here to build the best network we can. That is our focus. Realignment is left to other people."

After the LHN deal was announced in January, criticism began building - first because of the financial aspects, then because of complaints that the network would give Texas an unfair recruiting advantage.

"Fox made an offer that was a good offer, and ESPN got interested and made a great offer," Dodds said. "I was shocked by the offer. I was shocked by ESPN's burn to do it, but you don't turn it down. You do it.

"When some people were like, 'Well, that's wrong,' I don't think it was wrong. It wasn't wrong, in some people's eyes, until the money was there and ESPN was there. Once they saw the magnitude of it, it became a different deal."

Texas' decision to go with a programming partner instead of pairing up with cable distributors, as the Pac-12 has done, meant that distribution, not programming, would be a challenge as ESPN negotiated with hundreds of cable carriers. And not surprisingly, gearing up carriage has been a slow process.

Comcast, the largest carrier in Houston, had no comment on its plans for the Longhorn Network, but Plonsky said company officials are scheduled to visit Austin in the coming weeks.

As for Time Warner, the largest carrier in San Antonio, Dallas, Waco and Austin, spokesman Melissa C. Sorola said, "We have had discussions with ESPN about the Longhorn Network, and at this time we do not have an agreement in place." A Dish Network spokesman also confirmed talks with ESPN but said no deal is in place.

As for DirecTV, spokesman Robert Mercer said that while discussions have taken place, "we have no plans right now to carry it. We understand Longhorn has other programming that may be of value to a small segment of our customers, but two UT football games do not constitute a network."

Despite carriage delays, Dodds said Texas has no remorse about opting for ESPN as its partner. And he views today's launch in the same light as the 1983 Oklahoma-Georgia court case that cleared the way for the proliferation of college TV broadcasts.

"People were convinced that what Oklahoma and Georgia did would screw up football and would kill the sport," Dodds said. "It's like a moment in time when something happens and people say, 'Oh, my goodness,' and over time it settles out and becomes a good thing. And I really believe this network is a good thing."